Distributor:
Umbrella Entertainment - AV Channel Certificate: PG | All
Region PAL Format titles | 90 minutes each
Available to Buy Extras: Yes
WHAT’S
IT ABOUT THEN?
It
seemed that back in the 70's no
show worth it's salt could do
without a big screen spin off,
these days of course the feature
length Christmas Special fulfils
the same role but back in the
day it was often quite surreal
seeing your small screen
laughter makers on the big
screen, usually well out of
their comfort zone. This
new releases from Umbrella
is no exception,
dating from 1980, the real fag
end of such big picture spin
offs.
George
and Mildred had been one of ITV's most popular sitcoms, the duo of
course (played superbly by Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy) had first
appeared in Man About The House (which itself gained a big screen outing
in 1974), the series itself concerned the henpecked George and sex
starved Mildred moving to a posh new housing estate much to the dismay
of their would be upper crust neighbour Geoffrey Fourmile, the big
screen version pretty much abandons that scenario for a tale of George and Mildred visiting a London hotel
for a would be romantic anniversary break only for George to be mistaken
for ruthless hitman Harry Pinto, himself the target of a rival hitman
played by Kenneth Cope;
Now whilst there are plenty of funny moments and
some great character playing from the likes of Stratford Johns as a
crooked businessman and the legendary Kenneth Cope (TV's Marty Hopkirk
from Randall and Hopkirk Deceased) there are far too many longeurs and
scenes set in the hotel's myriad of corridors, it also suffers from not
having been written by the shows creators Johnnie Mortimer and Brian
Cooke; The playing of the leads does go some way to redeeming the flick
though and this actually marked Yootha Joyce's last appearance as she
died from cancer just before the movie was released.
ANY
SPECIAL FEATURES?
Extras
feature extensive liner notes, original theatrical trailer, photo galleries and the original ITC pressbook as a downloadable PDF DVD
Rom file.
